Corsair Obsidian 350D Case Review
by Dustin Sklavos on April 25, 2013 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- Corsair
- MicroATX
Conclusion: Might Be What You Were Waiting For
I have to speak candidly: I haven't been particularly impressed with the last couple of releases from Corsair. Their initial enclosure offerings started out fairly strong; the 800D is a good halo product, the 700D made it more accessible, and the Graphite 600T continues to be an attractive and unique enclosure. There was a very clear chain of progress as Corsair gradually began fleshing out less and less expensive enclosures in their lineup, right up until it seemed like they jumped the shark with the Vengeance C70. The C70 isn't a bad case, but it didn't address what had increasingly been the major failing of Corsair's enclosures: thermal performance. Corsair's cases were never terrible at air cooling, but they were consistently getting co-opted for more forgiving liquid cooling.
After the C70 we had the Carbide 200R, which proved (to me, at least) that you could build a Corsair enclosure too cheaply. I know a lot of people really liked the Obsidian 900D and I can't hold court against it, but it wasn't what I wanted to see from Corsair. It wasn't what I was asking for, and it wasn't really progress for them, just the natural extension of what we already knew they were good at.
I may be heavily biased towards the Obsidian 350D, though. I like small cases, and I really like small cases with big ambitions. The 350D is yet further evidence that Corsair can produce a halfway decent liquid cooling case, but it also demonstrates more of a willingness to innovate than many of the previous enclosures have. A good liquid cooling micro-ATX enclosure is a lot dicier a proposition; you can gamble with a Xigmatek or one of the five million Lian Li models out there, but the 350D feels singularly purpose driven.
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There are some really daring decisions inside the 350D if you're willing to look for them. Including not just the mounts but the headroom for a 280mm radiator in a micro-ATX case is gutsy. Deprecating 5.25" drive bays is par for the course for a micro-ATX enclosure, but look at how Corsair deprecated the 3.5" drive bays. The 2.5" and 3.5" cages are removable, but in many ways it seems clear to me that Corsair doesn't intend for that bottom cage to stay there, and the fact that it only holds two drives further cements that notion. Meanwhile the 2.5" cage is an oddly stackable design, where individual trays can be added or removed as needed. It's also toolless, which pays due to the fact that 2.5" drives and especially SSDs are increasingly the direction things are moving in. This year is seeing the release of terabyte SSDs from multiple different vendors, all in that 2.5" form factor.
Ultimately I think the 350D is like a breath of life from a company that seemed like it was slowly becoming conservative and resting on its laurels. Corsair already fleshed out their case line; they're at the stage where they need to innovate (oh I do hate that buzzword) and while you can argue that the 900D fell along those lines, many of their other recent releases did not. But the Obsidian 350D is in many ways a case that I personally wanted. As I mentioned before, micro-ATX cases have an unusual tendency toward some kind of specialization, and Corsair gave us one that had at least some aspirations towards being a strong liquid cooling enclosure, something genuinely rarefied up until this point.
The price is right, the build quality is there, and the ease of assembly is there. Corsair was able to bring the Obsidian aesthetic and increasingly its philosophy down to a new price point, and while stock cooling is only slightly less underwhelming than the 900D's was, everything else lines up pretty well. No one else is going to give you a micro-ATX case with a 280mm radiator mount, let alone one as well built and easy to use as this one is, and Corsair's not gouging you for it, either. I'd say that makes it Bronze Editor's Choice award material.
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bobbozzo - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Maybe a black bowl would not be so visible?Thanks for the reviews!
Zap - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Always good to see smaller-than-ATX cases given some attention. A lot to like about this Corsair case and I think all pertinent points have been made. I will point out, however, that this case seems pretty big for a mATX case. Of course coming from the company that just brought the world the 900D case, to be expected.I still feel that people aren't "getting" SFF (small form factor). The trend seems to be "how much crazy high end stuff can be built around a small motherboard" and not "how small an overall system can be achieved."
Rolphus - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
For "how small a system can be achieved", you've got Mini-ITX cases. For "how much gaming power can I pack into a box I can reasonably easily carry", I've got mATX ;)michaelheath - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Rolphus, I think you're also missing the point.First: There are ATX cases that are smaller and more portable than this one. Just because you shaved 3 inches off the bottom of the motherboard doesn't mean you've somehow magically made the whole system lighter, especially if you stuff it full of high end hardware and cooling.
Second: There are mITX cases larger than some mATX cases. The Bit Fenix Prodigy is only marginally smaller than, say, the Fractal Design Mini, which is just silly. This is the reason why I think this case is silly: It's a stupid huge enclosure for a board that's not even a 10" square.
Third: The 350D weighs over 13 pounds *empty*. If you look, you'll find dimensionally smaller full ATX cases that weigh less than that at roughly the same price point.
The assumption made when creating mATX and mITX standards was that people wanted smaller systems. In fact, as devices become more powerful and less power hungry, there's actually *fewer* reasons to design cases like this. As someone looking to build a small, powerful gaming system that I can easily carry, I would't even begin to consider this case.
DanNeely - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
"As someone looking to build a small, powerful gaming system that I can easily carry, I would't even begin to consider this case."Nor would Corsair expect you to. Like the other recently reviewed mATX case; this one is targeted at people building high performance systems who've decided they don't need a full ATX board but who have otherwise not changed their building patterns. Just big enough to hold an mATX board cases and just big enough to hold a full ATX board cases (with a full ATX board installed) don't have room for anything beyond a 1x120/140mm closed loop rad. Fitting in 240/280mm rads; never mind the pumps/reservoirs needed for full custom loops needs a few inches of space beyond the minimum required to cram the board in. That's the group this case is aimed at; and it is significantly smaller than what they'd need for an equivalent full ATX system.
michaelheath - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
That logic can easily be defeated with the following statement:If you don't have enough equipment to fill up the slots of a full ATX board, you probably also don't have enough equipment to warrant water cooling.
DanNeely - Thursday, April 25, 2013 - link
Water cooling is quieter than air cooling whether you have 1 large GPU in your system or 4.Rolphus - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
I've got an mATX system with 2 GTX 580s and an overclocked (closed-loop cooled) i5-2500K, and I'm very interested in exploring water cooling for the GPUs. If anything, having a mATX board makes this more relevant as I can't really get enough air between the GPUs to be comfortable.Rolphus - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
You're right, I have missed the point being made. My apologies.For me, all I care about is something more "portable" than my old Antec P180 (which weighed a ton and didn't easily fit in the boot of my car) so even the larger mATX cases are interesting.
This is why I find the case market fascinating: everyone has their ideals :)
lmcd - Friday, April 26, 2013 - link
Hence the SG09 ;) got a 3960X and saving up for a new GFX card for it :D